Dawo is one of the Aanaas in the

Oromia Oromia (Amharic: ) ( om, Oromiyaa) is a regional state in Ethiopia and the homeland of the Oromo people. The capital of Oromia is Addis Ababa. It is bordered by the Somali Region to the east; the Amhara Region, the Afar Region and the Benish ...

Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...

. Part of the Southwest Shewa Zone, Dawo is bordered on the southwest by Waliso, on the west and north by Dendi, on the east by

Elu Eḷu, also Hela or Helu, is a hypothesized language Middle Indo-Aryan language or Prakrit of the 3rd century BCE. It is ancestral to the Sinhalese and Dhivehi languages. R. C. Childers, in the ''Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society'', states ...

, and on the southeast by

Becho Becho is one of the Aanaas in the Oromia of Ethiopia. Part of the Southwest Shewa Zone, Becho is bordered on the south by Saden Sodo, on the west by Waliso, on the northwest by Dawo, on the north by Elu, and on the east by Tole. The major town in ...

. The major town in Dawo is Busa. Dawo is well known for its quality teff, which is marketed in

Addis Ababa Addis Ababa (; am, አዲስ አበባ, , new flower ; also known as , lit. "natural spring" in Oromo), is the capital and largest city of Ethiopia. It is also served as major administrative center of the Oromia Region. In the 2007 census, t ...

. However the woreda is located 96 kilometers from the capital (80 kilometers paved with asphalt and 16 kilometers gravel).

Demographics

The 2007 national census reported a total population for this woreda of 84,336, of whom 42,815 were men and 41,521 were women; 3,779 or 4.48% of its population were urban dwellers. The majority of the inhabitants said they practised

Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church ( am, የኢትዮጵያ ኦርቶዶክስ ተዋሕዶ ቤተ ክርስቲያን, ''Yäityop'ya ortodoks täwahedo bétäkrestyan'') is the largest of the Oriental Orthodox Churches. One of the few Chris ...

, with 94.78% of the population reporting they observed this belief, while 2.78% of the population practiced Islam, and 1.89% were

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

. Based on figures published by the

Central Statistical Agency The Central Statistical Agency (CSA; Amharic: ማዕከላዊ ስታቲስቲክስ ኤጀንሲ) is an agency of the government of Ethiopia designated to provide all surveys and censuses for that country used to monitor economic and social growth ...

in 2005, this woreda had an estimated total population of 80,529, of whom 40,270 were men and 40,259 were women; 2,032 or 2.52% of its population were urban dwellers, which is less than the Zone average of 12.3%. With an estimated area of 426.88 square kilometers, Dawo has an estimated population density of 188.6 people per square kilometer, which is greater than the Zone average of 152.8. The 1994 national census reported a total population for this woreda of 58,276, of whom 29,317 were men and 28,969 women; 1,140 or 1.96% of its population were urban dwellers at the time. The two largest ethnic groups reported in Dawo were the Oromo (93.35%), and the Amhara (6.17%); all other ethnic groups made up 0.48% of the population.

Oromiffa Oromo ( or ; Oromo: ''Afaan Oromoo''), in the linguistic literature of the early 20th century also called Galla (a name with a pejorative meaning and therefore rejected by the Oromo people), is an Afroasiatic language The Afroasiatic languag ...

was spoken as a first language by 98.04%, while 1.88% spoke

Amharic Amharic ( or ; (Amharic: ), ', ) is an Ethiopian Semitic language, which is a subgrouping within the Semitic branch of the Afroasiatic languages. It is spoken as a first language by the Amharas, and also serves as a lingua franca for all oth ...

; the remaining 0.48% spoke all other primary languages reported. The majority of the inhabitants were Orthodox Christians, with 99.58% of the population reporting they embraced that belief.''1994 Population and Housing Census of Ethiopia: Results for Oromia Region'', Vol. 1, part 1
, Tables 2.1, 2.13, 2.16, 2.20 (accessed 6 April 2009)

Notes

{{Districts of the Oromia Region Districts of Oromia Region